scholarly journals Death and the city

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-37
Author(s):  
Hrvoje Cvijanović
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
Personal Loss ◽  
Political Exclusion ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

The author argues that the politicization of life discussed by many modern and contemporary political thinkers cannot be treated differently, and hence without the similar curiosity and importance, from the politicization of death. The dead body represents a powerful symbol and as such it is often politicized. The paper deals with the problem of postmortem violence and juridico-political mechanisms aimed at excluding from the political body those not being alive but whose dead presence threats the living. For that purposes the author reconstructs Sophocles’ Antigone as a paradigmatic text whose reinterpretation and contextualization serve for rethinking the Greek conceptualization of the dead, and the ways in which the state penetrates into the realm of private attachments and funeral rites, especially when dealing with dead traitors/terrorists. Assuming an equal ontological status of every dead body, the author, on the one hand, defends mortalist humanism as an equal ability to grieve someone’s personal loss against the state-sanctioned politics of mourning, and on the other hand, argues that subjecting the dead to bare death, i.e. by turning them to political corpses as legally constituted dead human entities disposed to postmortem political exclusion, degradation, violence, or to other dehumanizing or depersonalizing practices, accounts for the illegitimate expansion of political power, and thus for the rule of terror, as well as for the ultimate human evil.

Calvinist and Catholic cities – urban architecture and ritual in confessional Europe

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
HEINZ SCHILLING
Keyword(s):  
Influential Factors ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Architecture ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The One ◽  
Lewis Mumford ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

Urban history, at least in Germany, has mainly concentrated on the Medieval and Reformation cities on the one hand and Industrial and Contemporary cities on the other. However, recent debates among Early Modernists have produced the view that ‘confessionalization’, that is the formation of three or four modern church systems based on specific confessions of faith, was one of the most influential factors in producing the fundamental changes that occurred between 1550 and 1650 in Europe. This had a huge effect on the cities of Europe and their inhabitants. This paper compares Catholic and Protestant cities in Europe around 1600 with regard to their specific architecture and their religious and civic rituals. Rites and other religious functions or institutions have always been an important part of urban life. Lewis Mumford refers to religious funeral rites in his magisterial analysis of urban life in a universal perspective: ‘The city of the dead antedates the city of the living. In one sense, indeed the city of the dead is the forerunner, almost the core, of every living city.’ In Europe, the relationship between the Church and the towns or cities was especially close and, in a sense, fundamental because of the medieval history of the European towns and the structure and profile of pre-modern European societies in general. We start with a brief overview of these preconditions for urban life during Europe's confessional period, and then go on to take a closer look at the confessional city itself.

The Political Theory of the Disruption

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Laski
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Principles ◽  
The Church

“Of political principles,” says a distinguished authority, “whether they be those of order or of freedom, we must seek in religious and quasi-theological writings for the highest and most notable expressions.” No one, in truth, will deny the accuracy of this claim for those ages before the Reformation transferred the centre of political authority from church to state. What is too rarely realised is the modernism of those writings in all save form. Just as the medieval state had to fight hard for relief from ecclesiastical trammels, so does its modern exclusiveness throw the burden of a kindred struggle upon its erstwhile rival. The church, intelligibly enough, is compelled to seek the protection of its liberties lest it become no more than the religious department of an otherwise secular society. The main problem, in fact, for the political theorist is still that which lies at the root of medieval conflict. What is the definition of sovereignty? Shall the nature and personality of those groups of which the state is so formidably one be regarded as in its gift to define? Can the state tolerate alongside itself churches which avow themselves societates perfectae, claiming exemption from its jurisdiction even when, as often enough, they traverse the field over which it ploughs? Is the state but one of many, or are those many but parts of itself, the one?

scholarly journals The (No-)Public Space. Reviewing the Transformation of Al-Qaed Ibrahim's Urban Image

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-192
Author(s):  
Iman Hegazy
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Image ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Public spaces are defined as places that should be accessible to all inhabitants without restrictions. They are spaces not only for gathering, socializing and celebrating but also for initiating discussions, protesting and demonstrating. Thus, public spaces are intangible expressions of democracy—a topic that the paper tackles its viability within the context of Alexandria, case study Al-Qaed Ibrahim square. On the one hand, Al-Qaed Ibrahim square which is named after Al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque is a sacred element in the urban fabric; whereas on the other it represents a non-religious revolutionary symbol in the Alexandrian urban public sphere. This contradiction necessitates finding an approach to study the characteristic of this square/mosque within the Alexandrian context—that is to realize the impact of the socio-political events on the image of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square, and how it has transformed into a revolutionary urban symbol and yet into a no-public space. The research revolves around the hypothesis that the political events taking place in Egypt after January 25th, 2011, have directly affected the development of urban public spaces, especially in Alexandria. Therefore methodologically, the paper reviews the development of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square throughout the Egyptian socio-political changes, with a focus on the square’s urban and emotional contextual transformations. For this reason, the study adheres to two theories: the "city elements" by Kevin Lynch and "emotionalizing the urban" by Frank Eckardt. The aim is not only to study the mentioned public space but also to figure out the changes in people’s societal behaviour and emotion toward it. Through empowering public spaces, the paper calls the different Egyptian political and civic powers to recognize each other, regardless of their religious, ethnical or political affiliations. It is a step towards replacing the ongoing political conflicts, polarization, and suppression with societal reconciliation, coexistence, and democracy.

Provisions situation in the Tambov Governorate in the early 1918

2021 ◽  
pp. 209-215
Author(s):  
Nikita V. Averin
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Goods ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Economic Preferences ◽  
Peasant Movement ◽  
Peasant Protest ◽  
The City ◽  
Regions Of Russia

We examine the provisions situation in the early 1918 in the producing regions of Russia using materials from the Tambov Governorate. Published documents indicate a strong rise in prices for consumer goods, the population was concerned about high prices for food. The provisions problem was clearly taking on political overtones. The Bolsheviks who came to power did not only impose power, proceeding from their political and economic preferences, starting socialist transformations and fighting the remnants of the old organs of power. All this is shown in pub-lished sources on the peasant movement that swept the province, as well as in memoirs, witnesses of all those problems associated with food and the deterioration of the political and economic situation in the city and the governorate as a whole. In particular, the Soviet power immediately faced huge provisions problems, both inherited and generated by their own requisitions, as well as with the peasant protest movement. The peasant movement itself, caused by hunger and chaos, in the future will play a huge role in the policies pursued by the Bolsheviks. Documents and memoirs can serve in the study of the state of the population in the specified period.

Re-Placing the state

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annabel S. Brett
Keyword(s):  
Human Agency ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Physical Movement ◽  
The City

This concluding chapter addresses the issue of the place of the city directly, and discusses the broader implications of place in relation to the metaphysics of human agency. As the space of physical movement, or locomotion, place is apparently depoliticized from the outset; for the political depends on the free, which, even if conceived as the voluntary and naturalized, is nevertheless contrasted with the external motion that is blocked by force. However, the casuistry concerning the local motion of citizens shows how the space of the political has to contend with the space of external movement, the same space in which animals move, which resists even as it supplements the voluntary and juridical construction of the state.

The State and the Rule of Law

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-13
Author(s):  
Andrzej Zoll
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Political System ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The One ◽  
Real Chance

The changes brought about in Poland and elsewhere in Europe by the fall of Communism have given rise to hopes for the establishment of a political system differing from the one which had been the fate of these countries. In place of totalitarianism, a new political system is to be created based on the democratic principles of a state under the rule of law. The transformation from totalitarianism to democracy is a process which has not yet been completed in Poland and still requires many efforts to be made before this goal may be achieved. One may also enumerate various pitfalls jeopardising this process even now. The dangers cannot be avoided if their sources and nature are not identified. Attempts to pervert the law and the political system may only be counteracted by legal means if the system based on the abuse of the law has not yet succeeded in establishing itself. Resistance by means of the law only has any real chance of success provided it is directed against attempts to set up a totalitarian system. Once the powers which are hostile to the state bound by the rule of law take over the institutions of the state, such resistance is doomed to failure.

The (Mixed) Times of Revolution

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Rodríguez Matos
Keyword(s):  
Political Change ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Jose Lezama Lima ◽  
Difficult Question ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
Political Foundations ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the role of Christianity in the work of José Lezama Lima as it relates to his engagement with Revolutionary politics. The chapter shows the multiple temporalities that the State wields, and contrasts this thinking on temporality with the Christian apocalyptic vision held by Lezama. The chapter is concerned with highlighting the manner in which Lezama unworks Christianity from within. Yet its aim is not to prove yet again that there is a Christian matrix at the heart of modern revolutionary politics. Rather, it shows the way in which the mixed temporalities of the Revolution, already a deconstruction of the idea of the One, still poses a challenge for contemporary radical thought: how to think through the idea that political change is possible precisely because no politics is absolutely grounded. That Lezama illuminates the difficult question of the lack of political foundations from within the Christian matrix indicates that the problem at hand cannot be reduced to an ever more elusive and radical purge of the theological from the political.

The City State of Singapore’s Territorial and Social Management Dilemmas

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolphe De Koninck
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Living Space ◽  
Foreign Labour ◽  
Fait Accompli ◽  
The One ◽  
City State ◽  
Social Management ◽  
The City ◽  
Permanent Residents

To better understand, on the one hand, the remarkable and largely commendable transformation that Singapore has undergone over the last century and, on the other hand, its vulnerability, answers should be sought to the following two questions. Does not the relentless overhaul of Singaporean living space, nearly always considered as a fait accompli, yet always subject to being revised by the state, lead to territorial alienation among the city state’s citizens and permanent residents? Just as classical Athens and even classical Rome came to depend on a constant and everincreasing supply of foreign labour, Singapore has reached a point where its dependence on a modern and imported form of lumpenproletariat has become apparently irreversible. Is this sustainable?

Seeing the State

2018 ◽  
pp. 124-165
Author(s):  
Jelle J.P. Wouters
Keyword(s):  
Political Conflict ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Postcolonial State ◽  
Dual Relation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines how protracted political conflict shapes the ways ordinary Naga men and women ‘see’ the postcolonial state. For most Nagas, long decades of conflict were marked by a dual relation to the state. On the one hand, they experienced the coercive, repressive powers of the state, while, after the enactment of Nagaland in 1963, the state manifested itself as a source of largesse and livelihood, as part of a politically driven policy of ‘seduction’ to tie Nagas to existing state structures and the political status quo. These historical experiences muddled distinctions between the state as a benevolent provider and protector, and that of a dispenser of bodily violence and misery, between the state as a lucrative resource and reservoir of public resentment. The way Naga villagers engage and ‘see’ the state, I argue, is mediated by this historical ambiguity.

scholarly journals SUNG POEMS AND POETIC SONGS: HELLENISTIC DEFINITIONS OF POETRY, MUSIC AND THE SPACES IN BETWEEN

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 597-615
Author(s):  
Spencer A. Klavan
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
English Speaker ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Poetry ◽  
Cosmic Order ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

Simply by formulating a question about the nature of ancient Greek poetry or music, any modern English speaker is already risking anachronism. In recent years especially, scholars have reminded one another that the words ‘music’ and ‘poetry’ denote concepts with no easy counterpart in Greek. μουσική in its broadest sense evokes not only innumerable kinds of structured movement and sound but also the political, psychological and cosmic order of which song, verse and dance are supposed to be perceptible manifestations. Likewise, ποίησις and the ποιητικὴ τέχνη can encompass all kinds of ‘making’, from the assembly of a table to the construction of a rhetorical argument. Of course, there were specifically artistic usages of these terms—according to Plato, ‘musical and metrical production’ was the default meaning of ποίησις in everyday speech. But even in discussions which restrict themselves to the sphere of human art, we find nothing like the neat compartmentalization of harmonized rhythmic melody on the one hand, and stylized verbal composition on the other, which is often casually implied or expressly formulated in modern comparisons of ‘music’ with ‘poetry’. For many ancient theorists the City Dionysia, a dithyrambic festival and a recitation of Homer all featured different versions of one and the same form of composition, a μουσική or ποιητική to which λόγοι, γράμματα and συλλαβαί were just as essential as ἁρμονία, φθόγγοι, ῥυθμός and χρόνοι.

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